Enlightenment Awakens the Positive Power – part 1

Lecture by Master Ching Hai
January 10, 1995 – Singapore

Many people expect that the enlightened persons or to be enlightened, those beings must be something extraordinary, must be perhaps seven feet tall or have feet like this or hands like that. Because we read the Sutras, the Buddhist Bible, it describes that the Buddha had such and such marks, like His feet linked together like the duck [Laughter] or His legs looked like the deer’s legs and His eyes looked like cow’s eyes, things like that. [Laughter] They tried to make the Buddha beautiful. But if you put all these together, it makes a funny Buddha.

They don’t realize that perhaps in the old times, these kinds of animals were the best symbols of beauty and a noble character. That’s why the ones who loved the Buddha tried to convey to others that He was so beautiful; like the way He walked like the king of geese and His chest like the lion and such and such things. But when you put all these animal parts together, you don’t know what kind of Buddha that is.

Now this is the outside only; and the inside of us, each one is the same. I think all of you know that. But how same, and how can we know that? This is a difficult question. Even though it’s very easy but it is difficult, because we have forgotten it. That’s all. We have forgotten completely what we really are. We are busy with chasing our dreams everyday and trying to fulfill our immediate desires and we forget what we really are and where we come from. Just to tell – you know how forgetful we can be, I’ll tell you a true story of myself.

I went to Australia – I think two or three years ago, also due to invitation – first time. And we were supposed to have three lectures in different cities. The first lecture went on all right, no problem. The second lecture also all right. I was on time. The third lecture I was late! The only reason was not traffic. It was not that I slept. It was not that I had no car or anything. The only reason was that I forgot. I forgot I had the lecture that evening.

I kept doing my things, like the room was a little bit untidy so I kept tidying it up and then I tried to move things here and there like it was my house. Perhaps it balanced my busy schedule, gave me something to do. Perhaps so  – or perhaps I’m a perfectionist. Whenever I see something is not in order, I try to put in order. But that was to the extent that I forgot that I had the lecture that evening.  I forgot until half an hour after the beginning time. Then some nervous disciples ran in, kind of crashed in and said, “Master You’re supposed to be in the lecture hall.”  I said, “What! What lecture hall?” I really completely forgot. I guess no one is as terrible as me, but perhaps we do forget sometimes. You do, or not?

Sometimes you are engrossed in some other business and you forget the main purpose or your goal that day. Does that happen to you sometimes? It does, hah, okay.

Of course, I had to rush and apologize to the people. I felt really terrible and I promised God that if He made me lecture again, He must put alarm clocks for me. So from then on, I always put alarm clocks everywhere; and whenever the lecture, I set them on everywhere so that I will remember in case I forget.  How can I forget a lecture! I even don’t understand that. But that’s what I did.

So now if we are here too long, one life, two lives, hundred lives, then of course we forget even more what is the purpose of our coming here. Some people, they die temporarily, for like a few minutes or twenty minutes even  – clinically dead, declared dead by the doctor, stopped breathing, no pulse, etc. But then after they came back, they told many stories of the other life beyond; and they also remembered why they came here, what they came to the Earth for.  But many of them forget immediately what they have seen in heaven or what they are supposed to do in this life. They know that they have seen the purpose of their lives; but when they came back here, they came back to this life again, they forgot. They just know that they know, but they don’t know what.

The Chinese have a saying that before we are born into this world again, the king of nether world would give us some soup, kind of hot drink, maybe chocolate or something. [Laughter] That is supposed to make us forget completely our past lives and start anew. Many of us promise that if we come here, if we are given the chance again to be human beings, we would do this, do that, and other. We would go and practice meditation and so on, get enlightenment, and dedicate all our life and energy to serve humankind, etc.

We really meant it well. But because of this soup, this “forget me soup,” everyone forgets. So the only thing for us to remember again is that we must open the gate of secret knowledge. Without that gate open, we can never, ever peep beyond this world; and the only thing we know is this material existence and all its suffering, joy and temporary other things; and we would forever identify ourselves with this physical appearance and suffer with it.

A Saintly Mind Expects Nothing in Return – part 1

 Master Ching Hai  talked to her disciples at the retreat.
June 6, 1995
Hsihu Center, Formosa

We have to do good things in this world, not because we will have a good result, good karma. That is only for children, for the beginners, for the beginning of practice. Then they still need awards, merit, punishment, all these praises and blame. But as we go to a higher dimension, a higher level of consciousness, we forget all this. We do whatever to benefit other people, and whatever is righteous according to our conscience, not expecting anything at all in return.

If we look at the history of the world, not everyone who does righteous things, not every act of kindness will be rewarded with the same level of goodness. For example, look around Jesus. All His life, He tried to do good and be a good example of Godly qualities, but He had no fantastic reward in return. I mean, when He was alive. Buddha, He has done a great deal for the world and for His disciples. But He had a lot of slander, blame and curses, sometimes, even close to assassination. Gandhi, for example, he strived to do good for his people and his country, and to bring peace among religious believers in India. What did he get in the end? A bullet.

Many other people like Kennedy of America, Abraham Lincoln, etc, all these good people. They sincerely tried to bring justice to the world and peace to human beings, but they all got a very tragic retribution for the good that they had done to the world. Politically speaking even, not only in religion.

Moreover, if we want to step beyond human life to become a saintly being, beneficial to the whole universe, that is the meaning of being a righteous person. That’s the purpose, the only purpose. As long as we practice goodness and kindness, there will be always a negative power that tries to attack us, that tries to make us stray from our purpose and go in a different direction, sidetrack us. So it takes a lot of determination and principles to control ourselves, to check our way, to check our lives, so that we always go in the right direction without regret, without complaining when we don’t have any good result out of this.

Even I myself don’t always have the correct result, and righteous result awarded to me. For one award, or one praise I get a hundred slanders in return. Just because you don’t know about them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Just because I don’t care about them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We do not take praise and blame very literally, very seriously. Therefore, we are not very affected by them.

Doesn’t mean I always get praises and smooth operation and cooperation from everyone. Even among disciples, there is no such thing as an easy way for a Master at all. In fact, it’s a way of great sacrifice and inner sufferings. Most of the people do not know. But still, despite all this obstruction and ungratefulness of humankind, we continue to do good. We still continue to improve ourselves, to do what is right, because it is right, because it is the challenge of this world that we always keep the way of God, we always keep the commandments of conscience. That’s how we rise above all differences, all the praise and the blame to be a noble being.

The Three Ways to Obtain Spiritual Liberation

Excerpt from Master Ching Hai Lectures

We have three ways to become liberated. I have talked about the devotional way, which is the easiest. You just believe in a saint and pray to Him or Her for blessings and deliverance, and when you leave this world you will be liberated.

The second is, you get initiation from a Master and become a Master yourself. This is of course more ideal, because then you can also save your family and other beings, not only yourself. It is more noble, and is what God wants or the Master wants from us. When a person becomes a Master, he can save numerous beings from heaven to hell; he can save any beings, and walk on any kind of plane.

The third way to be saved is by being a relative or a friend of an initiated person, even if you are already dead. If you were dead, already in hell, and suppose your great grand-daughter is initiated by a great Master, then you would immediately be free and go to heaven. If we are a friend of and initiated person, then we will also get help from the Master.

These are the three ways to liberation. Of course I emphasize the way of self-discipline toward self-realization, then our many, many generations (past, present and future) will also get liberation. It is because these generations and relatives have been connected to us by the “Law of Karma”, which means give and take, cause and effect, which carries on for many lives and many generations.

Q. Once the soul is awakened, does it stay actively awake?

M. Yes, always. The body will sleep, the mind will get sometimes entangled in other purposes, but the soul never does it again. Once awakened, it is always awakened. But even then, we need a cooperative mind, body and emotions in order to work best, to benefit the world more, with the soul’s directing power. Therefore, after initiation, even when we have a taste of enlightenment, and know ourselves, we still continue with our training, in order to make the mind used to the enlightened way of the soul, and not to sink down again in the physical level, and the worn out conceptions and habit forming ways of doing things.

 

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